This perpetual round of constrained civilities to persons quite indifferent to us, is the most provoking and tiresome thing in the... world, but it is unavoidable in a country town, where everybody is known.... 'Tis a most shocking and unworthy way of spending our precious irrecoverable time, to those who know not its value.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The worst feature in the history of those years, is, that no man spake for the Indian. When the Dutch, or the French, or the Engli...sh royalist disagreed with the Colony, there was always found a Dutch or French, or tory party,--an earnest minority,--to keep things from extremity. But the Indian seemed to inspire such a feeling as the wild beast inspires in the people near his den. It is the misfortune of Concord to have permitted a disgraceful outrage upon the friendly Indians settled within its limits, in February, 1676, which ended in their forcible expulsion from town.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

It is the consequence of this institution that not a school- house, a public pew, a bridge, a pound, a mill-dam, hath been set up,... or pulled down, or altered, or bought, or sold, without the whole population of this town having a voice in the affair. A general contentment is the result. And the people truly feel that they are lords of the soil. In every winding road, in every stone fence, in the smokes of the poor-house chimney, in the clock on the church, they read their own power, and consider, at leisure, the wisdom and error of their judgments.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

In a town-meeting, the great secret of political science was uncovered, and the problem solved, how to give every individual his f...air weight in the government, without any disorder from numbers. In a town-meeting, the roots of society were reached. Here the rich gave counsel, but the poor also; and moreover, the just and the unjust.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »